^ LIBRARY OF CONGRE-^S. ^ 

Chap. ...\^..^.(9.i». 





UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 







^4" 




MEMORIAL 



OF THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF 



Washington Bartlett 



(Late Governor of California) 



ADOPTED BY THE 



SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS 



AT A REGULAR MEETING, HELD MONDAY, MAY 7 
l88S 



WASHINGTON BARTLETT 



( 



MEMORIAL 

OF THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF 

WASHINGTON BARTLETT, 

Late Governor of the State of California. 



It is appropriate that the life and services of Wash- 
ington Bartlett shoukl be suitably commemorated 
in the archives of the Pioneer Society, of which he 
became a life member July 22d, 1880, and of which 
he was a Director in 1873-4 and again in 1881-2, and 
President in 1882-3. 

The mere facts of his career, to which of course it 
is proper in this memorial to refer, have been very 
extensively and very accurately published in the news- 
papers of the country. They are interesting and impor- 
tant in themselves. But, after all, there can be no 
full appreciation of the treasures he has left for his 
countrymen; no complete use of the example he has 
furnished for their imitation; no just tribute to his 
memory and to his achievements as they will pass into 
histor}', without wrenching from time and circumstance 
the secret and the inspiration of his great success and 
his extended usefulness. 

The scenes that attended his prolonged sickness, his 
death, and his burial, were without precedent in this 
State, during any portion of the stirring events of 
nearly forty years. Vv'hen Broderick died the heiirts 
of the jieople were deeply moved, and found eloquent 
expression through the voice of Baker. When Starr 
King passed gently to his eternal rest, after commit- 
ting himself to God, in the exquisite language of the 



■6 

twenty third Psalm, our citizens in large masses 
gathered around his church and his tomb, to attest 
their sj'mpathetic appreciation of his jjatriotism and 
of his unpretentious Christianity. When the wise and 
tender-hearted Lincoln, scarcely below Washington in 
his services to the nation and to humanity, was 
plunged into immortality by the hand of an assassin, 
at the very heighth of his fame, our streets resounded 
with the tread of pale and determined men, whose 
souls were touched by a grief which transcended the 
limits of section and of party. When Garfield, after 
lengthened suffering, iieroically endured, surrendered 
his breath to his Maker, and drew the North and 
the South indissoiubly together, no State in the 
American Union, in proportion to its size and its 
development, surpassed California in the mixture of 
horror and affection which all American communities 
manifested. And when Grant, the successful General 
of the Civil War, after having expended his waning 
stri'Ugth in one mighty effort to secure independence 
for his family, yielded up his spirit, in this broad and 
enlightened population there was no class that held 
back from tender and generous recognition of his 
unquestionable claim to the respect and to the grati- 
tude of his countrymen. 

But, when every allowance has been made for 
increase in numbers and in all the diversified forms 
of opulence, and when all these manifestations of 
feeling have been fully and entirely recalled, it must 
still be said that the love and appreciation which were 
shown for Washington Bartlett were locally unequaled. 
It is true he was the first Governor of the State who 
died in office, but that is insufficient to account for the 
demonstration that attended his illness and his obse- 
quies. He had barely entered upon the duties of his 
position and wearily forced himself through the labor 
of one legislative session, before the shadow of 



7 

impending dissolution fell upon liim, and in an official 
sense, lie was practically withdrawn from the public 
view. From the early part of May until August 22d, 
1887, at Sacramento, at the Highland Springs, in the 
mountains of Santa Cruz, and at Oakland, he was 
quietly and manfully battling against the insidious 
approaches of fatal disease. Then, in an instant, as it 
were, came the information tliat he was paralyzed, and 
for twenty-one days, his fellow-citizens throughout and 
beyond the State, demanded from his physicians and 
from the press daily, and frequently almost hourly, 
buUetins of his condition. There, in the modest resi- 
dence of his cousin, Dr. Annette Buckel, he spent the 
weeks of his final struggle, immediately attended only 
by those who were closest to his heart and by those who 
aided him in interpreting the messages of the Almighty; 
inaccessible to most even of his oldest and truest 
friends; often suffering, occasionally unconscious, but 
usually in the full possession of his mental faculties; 
kind, placid, thoughtful for others, mindful of all his 
duties and obligations, official and private, and clinging 
to his religious faith as the mariner clings to the rope 
cast to him in the sea — while, far away from his privacy, 
and yet reaching to the very entrance to his chamber, 
over a million souls watched the ebb and flow of death 
within him, with alternating fears and hopes, and never 
relaxed their strained attention until the final an- 
nouncement was made. This was a spontaneous and 
a disinterested tribute to the man. His active career 
was ended. He had no more rewards for his friends. 
He had no more offices to fill and no more favors to 
confer. He luid no largess of wealth to be dis- 
tributed when he died. He was personally known 
comparatively to few of the people, for he had never 
made himself conspicuous nor striven for social or 
political notoriety. And yet the flickerings of his 



pulse readied the human hearts of his constituents 
from one end to the other of this great State. 

And when, September 12th, 1887, late in the after- 
noon, lie went to his final repose, oblivious of all that 
was passing in this tumultuous world, the news pierced 
the air in every direction, and instantly the bells tolled, 
the flags were at half-mast, the ordinary relaxations 
and gayeties of life were hushed or moderated, and it 
is not extravagant to say that men and women every- 
where who had touched the life of the deceased at any 
point, even of its outer circle, melted into a sorrow 
which was as pure and unselfish as it was deep and 
pervading. 



For two days and on the morning of the third, the 
body of Washington Bartlett lay in state in the Hall 
of the Pioneers, and tens of thousands of both sexes, 
and even the little children who had heard their par- 
ents speak of him, gazed — most of them for the first, 
and all for the last time — ujion his marble features, 
fixed in serenity and in manly beauty. Meanwhile 
partisan clamors were stilled, and all classes were 
blended into harmony. W. D. English, the Chair- 
man of the Democratic State Central Committee, and 
A. P. Williams, Chairman of the Republican State 
Central Committee, aided by Arthur Rodgers, one of 
the Regents of the State University, and also one of 
his executors, and by William H. Jordan, Speaker of 
the Assembly, superintended the arrangements for the 
funeral ceremonies, which were perfected and carried 
out with rare ability and without the slightest friction. 
Early on the morning of September IGtli, the streets 
fairly overflowed Avith people, decently clad, serious 
in their deportment and quiet in their movements, 
who illustrated all the best elements of our population. 
In the procession, it is believed that scarcely an organ- 



9 

izution or an interest in the State, public or private, 
was unrepresented. The scene in and about Trinity 
Church, where the deceased had been a member and a 
communicant, was beyond description, and baffled 
even the versatile and experienced reporters of the 
press. No such spontaneous popular gathering, no 
such collection of distinguished men in every branch 
of the Municipal, State and Federal service, and in the 
departments of trade, commerce, agidculture, art, 
science, philosophy and literature, had ever been seen 
in California. There, among the honorary pall- 
bearers, was Peter H. Burnett, our first Governor, 
afterwards one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, 
supported by four other ex-Governors, two of whom 
had served out terms, one as Senator and the other as 
Representative, in the Federal Congress — John G. 
Downey, F. F. Low, Newton Booth and George C. 
Perkins. There were other Senators and ex-Senators 
of the United States. There, at the head of the regu- 
lar troops, was Major-General Howard, a war-scarred 
and a Christian hero. There, with the sailors and 
marines of the American Navy, was Commander 
Belknap, whose achievements are part of our national 
history. There was Niles Searls, the Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court, by the appointment of Governor 
Bartlelt, with the Associate Justices around him. 
There were the local Judiciary and the members of 
the Bar, embracing men whose names are known all 
over the Union. There were the Federal, State and 
Municipal officers, speaking by their presence for San 
Francisco, for the Commonwealth, and for the General 
Government. There were the Veterans of the Mexican 
War, the survivors of the gallant armies which gained 
for us the vast territories that made the United States 
an ocean-bound republic. There was a fragment of 
the Grand Army, bearing in their bodies the marks of 
that fraternal strife which ended iu a perpetuated 



10 

Uuiou. There were the Exempt Firemen, whose lives 
had beea imperiled a hundred times amidst the glare 
of a burning citv, and some of whom had doubtless 
exhibited their bravery and their discipline in defense 
of the property of the very man in whoso honor they 
paraded. There were the Police, typifying the slow 
triumph of law and order over anarchy and violence. 
There were the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of 
Trade, the Produce Exchange, the Academy of 
Sciences, officers of the University and of the Common 
Schools, and a hundred other societies, attesting the 
intelligence, the energy, the industry, the sagacity, 
which had built up the city and the State to their 
existing proportions and, moreover, had consecrated 
knowledge as the heritage of American youtl), even in 
the remotest parts of the United States. There were 
the Odd Fellows, bringing from lodge and encamp- 
ment the fraternal assurance of their sense of bereave- 
ment in the loss of one of their oldest and most 
distinguished members. * 

No phase of discriminating mourning was absent. 
The cliaucel of the church was lined with liowers in 
every form that love and taste could emplo}'. There 
was a Ship' of State, wrought with consummate skill. 
There was a closed book, signifying the end of a career 
similar to that upon which the donor had just entered. 
There was a miniature State Capitol, with every detail 
elaborated from foundation to dome, with the columns 
festooned with typical flowers, and Avith the national 
flag at half-mast — thus expressing in mute loveliness 
the most salient points in the life of the dead Executive. 
His pew was empty and simply decorated with crape 
and a sheaf of wheat, suggesting at once the general 
loss and the particular gain which had resulted from his 
departure. The Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese, 
lofty in stature and in bearing, and yet bending under 
the weight of years and of labor, headed the clergy 



11 

who received the body with the inspiring sentence: 
"I am the Eesnrrection and the life, saith the Lord; 
he that believeth in me, though hs were dead, yet shall 
he live; and whosoever iiveth and believeth in me shall 
never die." The deep tones of the organ rolled under 
the vaulted roof, and sweet human voices translated 
into soothing music the harmonies and the halo that 
break the silence and dispel the darkness of the tomb. 
And when, after St. Paul's matchless demonstration 
of immortality had been read, and the living had been 
brought to the attitude and to the realities of prayer, 
therector of the parish, the Rev. Dr. H. W. Beers, broke 
the rigidity of the Episcopal rule, as he was authorized 
to do in rare and exceptioufd cases, and, with quivering 
lips and in a broken voice, uttered a few of those 
weighty sentences for which above most living men he 
is noted, a-nd in which the whole lesson of a great life 
and of a great death was affectionately compressed, 
it seemed as if yearning tenderness over the dead had 
reached a climax which was the more impressive be- 
cause it was natural and spoutaneous. As the last word 
was spoken, there was a murmur of relief and once 
more the organ interpreted the hearts there melted into 
sympathy. Slowly and reverently the remains were car- 
ried, through streets lined with vast multitudes, who 
gradually dispersed, taking with them an ineffaca- 
ble recollection of the majestic spectacle in which 
they had participated. Military honors appropriately 
closed, as they had accompanied, the concentrated his- 
tory of that eventful day. A parting salute was fired 
over the tomb, and then the bugler blew the final blast 
which faith and eternity alone can answer. 

This last scene of all has been deliberately made 
the introductory part of this Memorial, in order that 
the true lesson and the true moral may be drawn from 
the outcome of tlie life of the illustrious Pioneer of 
whom your Committee are required to speak. Such 



12 

an exhibition as has been described must have had a 
cause and a meaning. The life that produced the 
demonstration must supply a lesson and a moral, the 
accurate comprehension of which is essential, not only 
to definite biography, but to the full realization of tiie 
benefits which such a life bestows upon mankind. 

The matured judgment of the American people upon 
every question and upon every man is always both 
right and just. It has been said that "republics are 
ungrateful," but the American Republic, Avhatever 
temporary fluctuations there may be in popular senti- 
ment, is never permanently ungrateful. It may tempo- 
rarily overlook merit, or, under the influence of pas- 
sion or prejudice, or through the perversions of dema- 
gogues, or in the absence of precise information, 
occasionally be guilty of an apparent or even real want 
of appreciation and approval, but, guided by citi- 
zens who are sovereign within themselves and subject 
only to the restrictions defined by a Higher Power than 
man, and who hold the ballot in their hands, — in the 
end its decisions are invariably accurate and sound. 
It chooses and develops its great men from every 
walk of life. It educates and raises them through 
successive promotions to its highest dignities. It 
watches over them with jealons sensitiveness and dis- 
crimination. It protects them in every vicissitude, 
and when they come to die it gives " their names to 

the sweet lyre," and 

" the Historic Muse, 
Proud of the treasure, marches with it dowu 
To latest times. " 

Some men the -American people never misconceive, 
and of these Washington Bartlett was one. What then 
was the secret of his uniform strength ? what the 
force that carried his najne and his record into the 
deep places in the popuhxr heart, so that he came, 
simple and nnobtrnsive though he was, to be cher- 
ished and regretted for hiraself alone? 



1 o 

It is easy to tell what he was not, and by this pro- 
cess, it may be that we can most readily ascertain 
what lie was. He was not eloquent in speech, — and yet 
orators bowed tearfully over his remains. He was not 
a soldier, who had earned distinction at the cannon's 
mouth,- and yet soldiers bent in humble friendship 
before his bier. He was not a sailor, who had carried 
his country's flag into unknown seas, or who had 
walked in blood upon the quarter-deck, — and yet sailors 
reverently followed his dead body until it returned to 
the earth from which it came. He was not a keen debater, 
wha lanced his legislative opponents with a Damascus 
blade,— and yet keen debaters shrank from his rebuke, 
and united in aclaiowledging his supremacy over them- 
selves. He was not a legislator of striking originality,— 
and yet legislators followed him in their votes. He 
was not a great judge nor a great lawyer, for he never 
aspired to judicial responsibility, and he left the arena 
of the law, because he disliked its excitements and its 
competitions, — andyetjudges andlawyers were for once 
harmonious in his praise. He was not in appearance 
and mannerpossessed of unusual physical intrepidity,— 
and yet men of unexcelled bravery found themselves 
attracted to him by an invisible power. He was not a 
profound scholar nor a learned scientist,— and yet schol- 
ars and scientists did homage to his memory. He was 
not a social lion nor a gentleman of fashion, — and yet 
the leaders of society and of fashion trusted and sup- 
ported him. He was not a seeker of notoriety, nor a 
bright or witty Bohemian, — and yet even demagogues 
and Bohemians respected him. He paid no special 
deference to the more conspicuous representatives of 
labor,— and yet they, and the masses who toiled, 
implicitly believed in him. He possessed no sparkling 
and rippling personal magnetism,— and yet, in an 
unusual degree, he drew to himself the sympathy of 
men. He had few intimates, — and yet his friends were 



14 

more luimerons 'than his acquaintances. He was a 
baclielor, with no marked social inclinations, — and yet 
good women liked him. He was plain, simple, mod- 
erate, temperate, slow and careful, both in thought and 
in expression, apparently though not actually hesitating 
in the formation of his opinions, but firm as a rock when 
he once arrived at a conclusion, and free from every art 
and device Avhich the mere politician employs to win 
influence and votes, — and yet Machiavelli was not more 
predominant in Florence than he became in the city 
and in the State of his adoption. 

What, then, were his secrets? In one sense he had 
none, for, to use the words of Goethe, his life was "an 
open secret." Still every man Avho reads circumstances 
as they are, and who is above the petty flattery b}' 
which prominence is too frequently submerged, will 
admit that in almost every department of mere intel- 
lectual achievement, there were men in our own midst 
who surpassed him, and that, on the surface of his 
career, there is a mystery which it requires close 
observation and earnest reflection to solve. 

What was this mystery? It was something difficult 
intelligibly to explain. The truth is that, taken as a 
whole, the man was greater than he appeared. His 
real position in the world was never realized either by 
himself or by his most intimate friends, but it was com- 
prehended by the people, through that infallible intu- 
ition which assures the permanence of our political 
system. 

In the first place, in heart, in mind, in education 
and in training, he was distinctively and thoroughly an 
American. It is claimed that, from the photographs 
of a hirge number of men engaged in any branch of 
art, science or industry, a typical picture of ideal per- 
fection in that special direction can bo constructed. 
Thus, it is said, that from all the leading Professors of 
Natural History in Europe and America a pattern was 



15 

raanufactured which was the image of Agassiz. If this 
process were applied to leading men from every part 
of the United States, it would bring out a face strongly 
resembling that of Washington Bavtlett. 

But it was not merely his broad and deep American- 
ism that attracted the multitudes. His flawless record 
presented two other points, which will be recognized 
as soon as stated: First, distinct and perfect character, 
of which reputation is at once the efflorescence and the 
fruitage; and, Second, that soundness of judgment 
which is the highest manifestation of intellect. 



Much of what he was he undoubtedly owed to his 
ancestry. He came of good stock on both sides, and 
the man himself, and the tender devotion which he and 
his brothers always rendered to their mother, consti- 
tute a sufficient eulogy upon her. On his father's side, 
however, we are carried back to ante-revolutionary 
times. Early in the seventeenth century his family 
were settled in Massachusetts. Towards the middle of 
the last century his great grandfather, Stephen Bart- 
lett, the elder brother of Josiah Bartlett, one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, settled 
upon a large grant of land in what is now Grafton 
County, New Hampshire. Here he was located during 
the most eventful periods of American history. When 
the raids of the Abenakis and the Acadians filled the 
sturdy Puritans of New England with terror for their 
wives and their little ones; when the torch and the 
scalping knife were expected visitors ii the long winter 
nights; when the British Crown and the Colonies 
united to break down the new France that was rapidly 
grasping the continent; when Louisbourgh fell and the 
power of France was broken in the extreme East; 
when, at Fort Duquesne, the defeat of Braddock was 
avenged, and French infiuence was extirpated on the 



16 

Ohio, the Missouri and the Mississippi; when Fort 
Fronteutic was captured and Fort Niagara evacuated, 
and French ascendancy on the great Lakes ceased, and 
the way to Montreal and to Quebec was opened; when, 
on the heights of Abraham, Montcalm lay dying and 
Wolfe was dead, after having fought one of the de- 
cisive battles of the world, which gave Canada to the 
English and prepared the way for our own National 
Independence; — during all the stirring incidents of the 
Seven Years' War, the most enduring effects of which 
have been felt in America; during our Revolutionary 
struggle, and during the years of organization which 
succeeded that struggle, Stephen Bartlett, in the ex- 
treme East, was engaged in the same kind of arduous 
labor in which, within our own epoch, Washington 
Bartlett and his fellow Pioneers were engaged m the 
extreme West, and we can thus trace the current of 
his Americanism steadily down through at least four 
generations. 

His father, Cosam Emir Bartlett, was born in New 
Hampshire, studied at Dartmouth College, and be- 
came a licensed attorney, but like his son Washington 
he had no taste, posssibly but little aptitude, for the 
profession. He was tilled with that spirit of restless- 
ness and enterprise that made New England a hive for 
thrifty and daring colonists, and in 181G he migrated 
to Charleston, South Carolina, where he formed an 
editorial connection with the press and married the 
lady, with whom he lived happily for about thirty-one 
years. In 1818 he removed to Savannah, Georgia, 
and, until 1837, remained there and in other parts of 
Georgia, engaged in the same pursuits,. February, 
29, 1821, Washington was born. During the thirteen 
years that he passed in Georgia he received the ines- 
timable advantage of a common school education, and 
his natural taste for learning was quickened and 
strengthened through the opportunities derived from 



17 

his father's business and associations. He was not 
rapid, but he was patient and thorougli in the acqui- 
sition of knowledge, and aided by a retentive memory 
his mind, originally strong, underwent a constant pro- 
cess of development and expansion. He not only ac- 
cumulated information, which to the end of his days 
he never lost and constantly augmented, bat more 
important than this, he early acquired the faculty of 
close reasoning and of reserving his decisions until his 
reason was convinced. From his boyish years he 
showed and retained the power of controlling his pas- 
sions and of escaping from prejudices, so that in what- 
ever society he happened to be thrown his opinions 
carried with them weight and dignity. The writer of 
this Memorial well remembers that thirty years ago or 
thereabouts, when for nearly three years he lived in the 
same house with Washington Bartiett, that gentleman 
always acted as moderator among a crowd of weli-edu- 
cateJ, bright and disputatious young men who were in 
the daily habit of discussing among themselves impor- 
tant and interesting questions, which often took a very 
wide range, and that, when their views diverged to an 
extent Avliich threatened to create permanent discord, 
his judicial qualities would be exerted, until through 
concessions and qualifications, they were gradually 
brought together and his conclusions generally accepted 
as final. 

But our theme would be imperfectly treated, and our 
interpretation of Washington Bartlett's success would 
be inadequate, if the incidents of his history were not in 
some degree followed. He learned the printer's trade 
in his father's office, and, in 1837, the family removed to 
Tallahassee in Florida, where the elder Bartiett pub- 
lished a newspaper. Before his death, in 1850, he 
also held various public offices in the municipality 
and in the State, and was widely known and respected. 
He was a man of intelligence and of varied informa- 



18 



tiou, Miul, while bis New England ideas had been con- 
siderably modified by residence in the south, upon the 
issues which agitated the two sections he occupied 
that middle position which may be justly termed con- 
servative. Firmness and resolution were leading traits 
in his character, and it is related of him that, on one 
occasion in Georgia, he dispersed a number of men 
wdio were proposing to destroy his printing office by 
deliberately preparing to set fire to a keg of gunpow- 
der. 

It would be inte)"esting to trace the historj- of young 
"Washington from 1837 to 1849, both externallj^ and 
internally, but it is impossible to overload this memo- 
rial with all the details of a biography. His advance- 
ment in the elements which made up his character was 
constant. He never went back — -however slow, his 
march Avas ever onwards and upwards. He read ex- 
tensively but thought more. He worked at his trade, 
but his bent was towards journalism and, about 1815, 
when he was twenty-one years of age, and his father 
was failing in health, he began the publication of a 
newspaper on his own account. Towards the close of 
1848, when the discovery of gold near Coloma had 
become known all over the countr}^ his attention was 
attracted to the Pacific Coast, and he resolved to settle 
in San Francisco, where he was convinced there would 
be room for a daily newspaper. 

He dispatched his printing materials in advance of 
his own departure, anil, January 31st, 1849, sailed 
from Charleston, on the ship Othello, of which Joseph 
Galloway Avas the master, and reached San Francisco 
on November 19th of the same year. The main inter- 
est the voyage has, after the lapse of more than thirty- 
nine years, lies in a diary, which he k<3pt, and which 
is before your Committee. The liandwriting is clear 
and distinct, every letter well-formed, every capital in 
its place, and every mark of punctuation correct. 



19 



These evidences of cave and deliberation could be seen 
in all his correspondence and drafts down to the 
close of his life. But the diary is also a revelation 
of character and of intelligence, with passages that 
would scarcely have been expected from him in later 
days, when the sentiment and the enthusiasm which 
formed positive elements in his character were habitu- 
ally repressed. On Februar}^ 2'2d, 1849, the birthday of 
the Father of his Country — after whom he was named, 
and whom, in some respects, lie closely resembled — he 
"commenced the study of astronomy." This was not 
the freak of a young man, "everything by turns and 
nothing long," but the result of a purpose, faithfully 
pursued, and which produced definite results. Two 
days later he was taking observations of the constella- 
tion Argo, and by Match 16th, when for the first time 
he saw the Southern Cross, it is astonishing to observe 
the advancement he had made, and this advancement 
continued as the old ship reeled on towards its desti- 
nation. He kept a log of the courses, the winds, the 
weather, the latitude and the longitude, and the princi- 
pal incidents of each day, and his terseness, his pre- 
cision, his rejection of immaterial matters, and his 
quick comprehension of nautical terms, are genuinely 
attractive. He who takes up the narrative will not 
readily lay it down without a careful reading. When a 
vessel Avas sighted on February 25th, his first thought 
was to prepare a letter to his father, which, unfortu- 
nately, he was unable to send until March 22d, when 
" La Jeujie Aurelie " was spoken. He seemed to ob- 
serve and to record everything of moment, even to 
the hymns sung on a Sunday night, which took him 
back in memory to his mother's knee. His apprecia- 
tion of the beautiful and the grand, and his c.-ipaeity 
for description, are among the unexpected things we 
find. In one place he compares the flying fish to 
newly fledged birds, trying their wings from^tree to 



20 

tree. In another he says that, " like Noah of old," 
he }nit I'oith his hand and canght a delicate land-bird 
that had become exhausted because it could find no 
rest for the sole of its foot. He felt pleased that it 
had placed itself under his protection, and cherished 
it until it died. There are many such passages -which 
could be extracted or epitomized. He notices and 
portrays the clouds, the sky, the Avater, an eclipse of 
the moon, a rainbow, and draws on the soft melody 
of Montgomery and on the gi-^phic strength of Sir 
Walter 8cott. His account of a storm off Cape Pos- 
session, in which the crazy vessel was almost lost, is 
vivid and powerful. She was riding at anchor, when 
one of the cables parted and the remaining anchor 
slowly dragged her towards the rocky shore. The 
passengers were hastily called together by the captain 
to determine whether they would risk foundering on 
the land or cut the cable and put to sea. All was 
confusion and turmoil. Counsels were divided and per- 
sonal altercations almost matched the fury of the gale. 
Bartlett then, as when thirty-eight years later he Avas 
facing the dark angel in his bed, preserved his self- 
control, and, by his advice, the decision was left to 
the most competent authority — the master himself. 
With great difficulty the massive iron was separated, 
and then, to quote the language of the diary, "the 
hand of Providence directed their course."' The stag- 
gering vessel barely cleared the breakers at Point 
Dunganess, and then she "scudded before the wind 
into impenetrable darkness." 

Here are some indications of that power which 
ultimately ripened into fame. When the young man 
reached San Francisco, he found his ))rinting mate- 
rials here, and, by dividing them, he was enabled to 
secure a share in the public printing. In January, 
1850, in partnership with John S. Robb, he started 
the Dail// Journal of Commerce, which appeared simul- 



21 

taneously with the Daily Alia California, a newspaper 
which had been previously published semi-weeklv, and 
yet survives, in respectability and prosperity. The 
enterprise was successful, but was seriously crippled 
by the fire of June, 1850, which destroyed the estab- 
lishment. After that time it was continued until' the 
conflagration of 1851, which ended its existence. Then 
the resolute young Pioneer went back to his trade, 
until the fall of 1852, when Columbus Bartlett, one 
of his brothers, arrived here, antl in conjunction, they 
opened a job printing office at the southwest corner of 
Front and Sacramento streets, under the name of C. 
Bartlett & Co. In 185o, they began the publication 
of the Duilj Evening News; and in February, 1851, 
they were joined by their brother, Cosam Julian Bart- 
lett, who was an editorial writer upon the Bnllelin, 
when he died at San Bernardino, November '21st, 
1861, and whose bright mind and sweet nature insured 
the preservation of his memory in many affection;ite 
hearts. The three brothers thus became associated, 
and Washington had tlie editorial management, while 
Julian was tiie chief writer, and Columbus attended to 
the business affairs of the new journal, which rapidly 
gained popularity and advertising patronage, as well 
as subscribers. In 1856, the Vigilance Committee was 
formed, and, for a number of months, practically held 
possession of San Francisco. This is not the time nor 
the place to discuss the merits or the demerits of that 
organization, which, whether justified or unjustified 
by the events that preceded or the history that attended 
and followed its existence, certainly embraced the bulk 
of our best citizens, achieved great power and reputa- 
tion, and exemplified the capacity of the American 
people for self-government. The Eve)nng News favored 
the Committee, of which Washington became a promi- 
nent member, while Julian and Columbus refrained 
from active participation in the movement. Washing- 



99. 



ton was nppoiuted captain of a njilitavy company, and 
was present when the county jail was taken, and when 
Cora and Casey were wrested from the custody of the 
Sheriff, David Scannell, — now the Cliief of the San 
Francisco Fire Department. Washington Bartlett, 
although firm in his conviction that extra judicial 
force was essential to reform in the administration of 
our local affairs, was nevertheless moderate and con- 
servative in his views of the measures wdiich the exi- 
gency demanded, and it is believed that his influence 
largely contributed to the release of Judge David S. 
Terry. This, for a time, rendered him unpopular wath 
the rank and file of the Committee, but they speedily 
saw the wisdom of his action, and his unpopularity was 
short-lived. In the latter part of 1856, he purchased 
the interests of his brothers, Julian and Columbus, in 
the Evening News, and in connection with Edward 
Connor, afterwards Consul at Mazatlan, and with 
William H. Rhodes, who took his place in literature 
under the name of " Caxtou," converted that journal 
into a morning paper, called the True Cali/oriiian. 
This newspaper was brilliantly' edited and extrava- 
gantly managed, and, in 1857, its publication was 
suspended, leaving an indebtedness of from twelve to 
fifteen thousand dollars upon the shoulders of Wash- 
ington Bartleit, all of which, by the exercise of 
economy and self-denial, he succeeded in paying 
within about ten years. 



We have now reached the end of Washington Bart- 
lett's relations to journalism, and of what may be 
termed the second epoch in his life. During all the 
years after he left Tallahassee, he had been undcigoing 
an uninterrupted process of development. He had 
lived in the midst of a population which, in intelligence 
and in enterprise, surpassed the general average of 



23 

mankind. Modest and unassuming though he was, he 
had been thrown into contact with a host of brilliant 
men, from every part of the Union and, indeed, from 
every kingdom and empire in Europe, and, whatever 
they could give, he had absorbed and assimilated, 
while the rectitude and purity of his habits preserved 
him from all possible contamination. He had inijex- 
ibly followed those studies which made him familiar 
with history, with the principles of sound jurispru- 
dence, with the fundamental truths that underlie our 
political institutions, and with the principal questions 
that'were absorbing the attention of great statesmen 
and diplomatists at a most active and interesting 
period in the rise of nations. He had witnessed or 
been within the range of every phase of the evolution 
of a community, destined to occupy a most responsible 
post in civilization, and in which American ideas, in 
all their breadth and depth, were piedomiuaut. He 
had used his own pen upon a diversity of topics, and 
had improved his natural talent for composition by 
laborious practice. In short, he was now admirably 
equipped for public life, and, until the date of his 
death, he occupied a variety of positions, suitable to 
his capacity and experience, although not invariably 
congenial to his taste, until, gradually, without forcing, 
and with no artificial aids, but through the growth of 
faith and confidence in the hearts and in the minds of 
the people, he was raised to the highest place in the 
commonwealth. 

It must be observed that after the death of his 
father in 1850 the burthen of supporting his mother 
principally devolved upon him, and that in addition to 
this sacred duty, which he strictly performed, he was 
weighted by an indebtedness, not of his own creation, 
which it cost him much effort and endurance to liqui- 
date. His tendencies were not speculative, and every 
dollar he ever had was earned by his own labor or by ju- 



24 

dicions investments in real estate. To dismiss tbis 
branch of the subject, he freed himself from all obli- 
gations and accumulated a small fortune, never exceed- 
ing a hundred thousand dollars, the income of whicli, 
after deducting two hundred dollars per month for his 
own immediate purposes, he devoted to deeds of char- 
ity and of kindness, of which the world never heard. 
To illustrate his fidelity to his mother it ma}- be proper 
to relate an incident which deserves notice. When 
the Civil War broke out in 1861 she was residing at 
New Orleans with her son Frank A. liartlett, who, un- 
like his brothers, espoused the cause of secession and 
entered the Confederate service. October 1 1, 1861, 
Washington wrote her a letter which your Committee 
have had an opportunity to examine, and which may be 
not inaptly described as a stream of common sense flow- 
ing throngh the channel of affection . At that time New 
Orleans was blockaded and all communication with 
the North cut ofif, and he was apprehensive that, 
under those conditions, his mother might be short of 
means. On the previous August 22d, he had sent her a 
draft for three hundred dollars, to which he alludes, 
and he adds: "As you may easily imagine, we are all 
extremely anxious to hear from you, and feel the de- 
privation sorely; yet comfort ourselves by trusting 
in that Providence in whose keeping we all are." His 
solicitude in this instance was not rewarded, for, as we 
learn, by a letter from Jesse Seligman of December 
21, 1861, the draft was returned, because there was no 
opportunity to pass it through the lines. The failure 
of the remittance, however, was immaterial, for three 
weeks before Mr, ISeligman's letter was written, his 
good mother had gone to that "undiscovered country 
from whose bourne no traveler returns." 



25 

The path is now clear to that portion of Washington 
Bartlett's career which, although it embraced some 
private business, may nevertheless be treated as public 
and official. In 1857, William Duer, who had been a 
noted lawyer in New York, was elected County Clerk 
of San Francisco by the People's Party, which under- 
took to crystallize the work of the Vigilance Committee 
of 1856. He immediately appointed Washington one 
of his deputies, and he was assigned to duty in the 
courtroom of Edward Norton, Judge of the Twelfth 
District Court, and subsequently one of the Justices 
of the Supreme Court, — a man who, iu his judicial 
character, was readily acknowledged as facile princeps 
during his term of service at nisi prins. In 1859 he 
succeeded Mr. Duer as County Clerk, and was re- 
elected in 1861. He was again chosen for the same 
office in 1867. Intermediately, having been duly li- 
censed by the Supreme Court, he practiced law with 
his brother, Columbus, but he cared nothing for 
trials and had but little interest in professional life, 
although his knowledge was extensive and his advice 
careful and accurate. In 1870, by the appointment of 
H. H. Haight, who then filled the office of Governor, 
and whose reputation needs no brush, he filled a 
vacancy as State Harbor Commissioner, caused by the 
death of J. H. Cutter. His service in this place lasted 
about a year and a half, and proved of great benefit to 
the State. In fact, it will not be denied that he met 
the demands of every office he held so fully and so 
satisfactorily that he was treated, even by rabid parti- 
sans, as beyond criticism. George Washington, as a 
surveyor or in military service on the frontier, was no 
more perfect in his fulfillment of duty than was his 
namesake as deputy clerk, as County Clerk, — in each 
station, little or great, to which he was called. He 
mastered the details of every department of the gov- 
ernment with which he was associated, and yet never 



26 

for a moment lost sight of the broad principles by 
which the details were to be regulated, and thus he 
grew into a fullness and a ripeness which made failure 
impossible. 

After the expiration of his term as State Harbor 
Commissioner, for about two years, he was the Secretary 
of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, of which, 
almost from its formation, he had been an influential 
member. In 1873, the controversy with reference to 
the attempted acquisition of Goat Island by the rail- 
road corporations was in full vigor, and so intense 
was the excitement that it resulted in an independent 
political movement for the election of representatives 
to the Assembly and to the Senate, who were to vote 
for a Senator of the United States. Mr. Bartlett was 
elected to the State Senate on the independent ticket, 
and his associate, elected by the Democrats, was Pliilip 
A. Roach, of this Committee. He served for four 
years, and, while he made but few speeches, he took 
an active part in plans of legislative improvement, 
while he was always to be relied upon in opposition 
to measures that were corrupt, doubtful, or unneces- 
sary. At the beginning of his term, in conformity 
with his pledge, he voted for Newton Booth for the 
United States Senate; and he also contributed to the 
election of John S. Hager, to fill the vacancy caused 
by the resignation of Eugene Casserly, between whom 
and himself, as far back as 1851, there had been acute 
journalistic competition. He had been fundamentally 
a Democrat from his early manhood, and, in the 
main, had acted M^tli the Democratic party; but, on 
two or three occasions, like that referred to in 1873, 
he united with his political opponents when he con- 
ceived such joint efforts to be necessary for the pub- 
lic safety. When the second half of his senatorial 
term began, the People's Union, which had chosen 
him as an independent candidate, had ceased to exist, 



27 

and thereafter, on all party issues, lie acted with the 
Democrats, 

His career as Senator closed in 1877, and the next 
year he seized the opportunity, which he had coveted 
for many years, to reap the benefits of foreign travel. 
He went to Europe and visited London, Paris, Rome, 
Naples, Pompeii, and other places famous in ancient 
and in modern history. He traveled extensively 
through the mountains of Switzerland and the lake 
regions of England and Scotland, and he also spent a 
considerable time in the larger towns and cities of Ire- 
land* His observation was close and penetrating, and, 
through his entire previous education and experience, 
he was protected against the danger of being misled 
in his estimates of communities and institutions by the 
superficial courtesies and blandishments of aristocratic 
society. He returned even a better ximerican than 
when he left, but with an appetite whetted for further 
and deeper exploration into those saturated masses of 
feudalism from which much of our population and many 
of our practices have been derived. He was once 
strongly inclined to resign the office of Mayor of San 
Francisco in order to continue his study of society and 
of politics abroad, and if he had not been nominated 
for Governor he would undoubtedly have repeated his 
European tour. 

Although this is designed, for the benefit of the Cali- 
fornia Pioneers, to be a permanent record of the life of 
Washington Bartlett, it is virtually impracticable, 
within ordinary limits, to mention even a large fraction 
of the facts which were crowded into the sixty-three 
years between his cradle and his grave. Within that 
part of his public history to which reference is now 
being made, many interesting though comparatively 
unimportant events transpired which ought not to be 
entirely ignored. Of these only a few can be jnen- 



28 

tionecl. It Las already been stated that he was long 
a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, which 
has exerted a commauding, although dimiui.shiiig, 
influence upon the Pacific Coast. He also joined the 
Mercantile Library Association shortly after it was 
established. He drew the statute under which the 
first homestead incorporations were formed, and was 
the President of the San Francisco Homestead Union, 
which was the pioneer in that branch of our local pro- 
gress. Bartlett street, at the Mission, was named in 
his honor by the stockholders. He united with the 
Mechanics' Institute soon after it was organized, and 
was one of its directors for several terms. He was 
among the founders, and, for about fifteen years, a 
director and vice-president of the San Francisco Sav- 
ings Union. He was a charter member and Past 
Grand of Parker Lodge, No. 124, I. O. O. F.. and, for 
a dozen 3'ears or more, represented that body in the 
Grand Lodge of California, serving on the most im- 
portant committees. He was one of the founders and 
the first President of the California Home for Feeble 
Minded Children, which has become a State institu- 
tion, located near San Jose. It is hardly necessary lo 
add that his membership in the Society of California 
Pioneers dates back to its early records. 



These are a few of his subsidiary claims to activity 
and energy in the promotion of the best interests of 
the community in wliicli his lot was cast. From 1872 
to 1876, and during the greater part of his senatorial 
term, he was in co-partnership Avith Daniel L. Ran- 
dolph in the real estate business in San Francisco, but 
after 1876, with tlie reservations already alluded to, 
his whole time was employed for the good of the pub- 
lic. In 1879 he was one of the Board of Freeholders, 
which prepared a new charter for Sau Francisco that 



29 

■was rejecteil at the polls, and no surviving member of 
that Board will dispute his profound knowledge of mu- 
nicipal affairs nor the thoroughness with which he 
performed all the labor that was allotted to him. 

It was, however, in 1882, that he gained his first 
signal triumph before the people for the highest mu- 
nicipal office within their gift. He had been success- 
ful in former elections, and had never but once been 
defeated. This occasion, however, tried his mettle, 
because it was a party contest, in which his opponent 
was an able and incorruptible man of high standing 
and* wide popularity. Maurice C. Blake was an able 
lawyer, who had succeeded at the bar, when, many 
years ago, he was elected County Judge, and after- 
wards successively Probate Judge, Judge of the Muni- 
cipal Court, and Mayor. In these various positions 
his honesty and his capacity had become proverbial, 
so that it was regarded as impossible to beat him for 
any office for which he could be induced to run. 
In 1882 he was the incumbent of the office of 
Mayor, in which he had given complete satisfaction, 
and he was renominated by the Republicans. His 
nomination was generally regarded as equivalent to 
his election; and the Democrats were puzzled to find 
a head for their ticket who would insure them against 
an overwhelming defeat. At length the name of 
Washington Bartlett was suggested, and accepted with 
such acclamations as are not commonly heard even in 
a political convention. He conducted his party to a 
sweeping municipal victory. The writer cannot fail 
to recall the fact that, when the ratification meeting 
was held at Union hall, and during the entire canvass, 
Mr.Bartlet's chief anxiety was not so much that lie 
might win, but that, if elected, he should be backed 
by a Board of Supervisors who would co-operate with 
him in municipal reforms. In 1881 he was renomi- 
nated and re-elected over Captain W. L. Merry, the 



30 

head of the Republican ticket; but, in this instance, 
it was his exceptional strength with the people that 
gained his success. His party was beaten, and the 
Board of Supervisors, with but one exception, tlie 
present Mayor of San Francisco, E. B. Pond, con- 
sisted of his political opponents. His second term 
as Mayor was an almost constant struggle, in which 
his equanimity was sorely tried. But he never 
proved unequal to any emergency, and he never 
allowed his political opinions to interfere with his 
sense of right. He held pronounced and definite 
views upon the water question, upon the question of 
improving sidewalks, upon the proper duration of 
street railroad franchises, and upon the economical 
expenditure of public monev, and he was inflexible in 
his adherence to the pledges he had given upon these 
and other matters, in which his individual opinions had 
been expressed. August 24th, 1887, two days after the 
crisis of his illness was reached, he said: "I have 
always considered my office a sacred trust, given to me by 
the people, and that I must discharge my duty to them 
without regarding my own personal feelings." These 
earnest words, spoken in the midst of suffering and 
with the prospect of immediate death before him, are 
the keynote to his entire public career. As Mayor 
of San Francisco he systematically and carefully dis- 
charged all his duties, and while, so far as possible, he 
co-operated with the legislative department of the 
municipal government, he vigorously asserted the 
independence of the executive department, and 
interposed his veto to every order which, in his 
opinion, violated elementary principles. His mes- 
sages, which are models of terse statement and clear 
reasoning, are to be found in the Municipal Re- 
ports for 1883-1884 and 1885-1836. It would be su- 
perfluous to make extracts from them, but to all suc- 
ceeding generations in San Francisco, they will attest 



31 

his honor and his sagacity. He realized, Avhat so many 
excellent citizens fail to comprehend, that, in mat- 
ters of government, the least departure from a fixed 
rule creates a. dangerous precedent, and that leaks in 
public treasuries frequently originate in very small 
punctures in charters or statutes. Consequently, he 
was rigid in Lis adherence to the law as he found it, and 
no apparent exigency could induce him to consent even 
to a temporary violation of a statute. He bad aided 
in 185G in the passage of the Consolidation Act, which, 
however imperfectly it may now be adapted to the con- 
ditk)ns of a commercial me'ropolis, nevertheless had 
given a wholesome check to the rampant corruption 
which formerly disgraced the municipality, and by its 
explicit checks and guards had forced public officers 
to practice a certain degree of economy. He had been 
familiar with the numerous amendments and supple- 
ments which the legislature had framed in vain at- 
tempts to meet the wants of a community whose 
growth transcended all expectation, and at the 
same time maintain the strict rules prescribed 
in the charter itself. He was in no degree 
narrow or circumscribed in his ideas, and he was a 
friend to every really progressive measure, and fully 
recognized the expanding requirements of a large city. 
He had assisted, as already stated, in the construction of 
a new charter which the voters, who had experienced 
the benefits of a fortified treasury, had defeated. Autl, 
as Mayor of San Francisco, he unhesitatingly and 
boldly, but with wisdom and resolution, adhered to 
the ancient land-marks, which, in so many ways, had 
met with popular sanction. The statute known as the 
"One-Twelfth Act," had provided in substance that, 
except in case of public danger or some paramount 
necessity, not more than one-twelfth of the annual 
revenue should be appropriated in any one month. 
He unqualifiedly refused, in the face of his own polit- 



32 

ical friends, to endorse or to tolei-ate any evasion of 
the provisions of this Act, under any pretext or excuse, 
however plausible or however ingeniously argued. 
When the municipal funds temporarily failed, and a 
Democratic Board of Supervisors sought to meet the 
embarrassment, nnder the authority of a legislative en- 
actment, by submitting to tlie people a proposal to issue 
bonds to the anionnt of half a million dollars, he vetoed 
the measure, and, through the co-operation of leading 
citizens, whose confidence in him was implicit, raised 
the money that was required from voluntary payments 
of delinquent taxes. He insisted that street railroad 
franchises should bo limited to twenty-five years. He 
declined to approve orders which sought to impose 
unconstitutional burthens on property-owners. Both 
parties were pledged to the limit of one dollar on the 
hundred in taxation for municipal purposes. He held 
them to their pledges, and no persuasion or entreaty, 
no ironical or satirical allusions to the parsimonious 
manner in which the public affairs were administered, 
no efforts by greedy contractors or unoccupied dema- 
gogues, no pressure from any quarter, low or high, 
could induce hini to abate one jot or tittle of his 
plighted word. He Avould submit to be called a Silu- 
rian, but he was determined to be an honest man. 
No more absurd charge could be made against him 
than that of indecision. He was slow in adopting 
conclusions, but firm as Andrew Jackson in enforcing 
them; and, with him, there was no need of discussion 
upon tiny issue, which merely called for ordinary 
integrity. 



Your Committee have before them, in his own hand- 
writing, his remarks on personalities before the Board 
of Supervisors, when the dissension between the exec- 
utive and legislative departments of the municipal 
government reached a point of exasperation on the 



33 

side of the Supervisors, which caused some of them 
for the momeut to overlook the respect due to their 
President. It is a document worthy of preservation 
for all time. It is condensed to the last degree, hut 
at the same time so true, so moderate, so appreciative 
of the rights of the bodv he addresses, and jet so res- 
olute in its vindication of the substantial respect due 
to a co-ordinate branch of the municipal government, 
that it reads like a paper by Washington. Let this 
commendation be justified by two or three extracted 
sentences : 

"The participation in personal altercations is ex- 
ceedingly disagreeable to me. No one more fully 
appreciates the fact that the indulgence in personal 
disputes and controversies is unbecoming to my years 
my character, and the position I hold by the sufifrages 
of the people; and yet, if I am not supported in main- 
taining order, it ought not to be expected that I shall sit 
silent and hear my character assailed and my motives 
impugned at each meeting of the Board. I am here, 
not because it pleases nie, but in the discharge of a 
duty imposed by law. I shall treat every member 
courteously, and endeavor to preside over your delib- 
erations impartially, and I shall expect, and I have the 
right to expect, like courtesy and fairness from you. 
The important interests entrusted to our care are am- 
ply sufficient, if properly considered, to engross our 
attention, without wasting time on personal disputes 
and exhibitions of temper, which can only result in 
loss of public respect for ourselves and our determina- 
tions." 

These were the right words, spoken at the right 
time and in the right place, and, while they had a 
more far-reaching effect upon the constituency of the 
Mayor and the Supervisors, they were decisive in 
checking the growth of a spirit which might otherwise 
have become so unruly as seriously to interfere with 



34 



the proper management of the public business. The 
course adopted by Mr. Bartlett was in exact corre- 
spondence with his character and a substantial proof of 
the soundness of his judgment. He would not break a 
pledge. He would not surrender one of the preroga- 
tives which had been committed to him by his fellow- 
citizens. Ho would not consent to an elastic interpre- 
tation of tlie law even to tide over serious difficul- 
ties. He would not tolerate unjust and offensive 
imputations against himself. On the other hand, ho 
would not descend to any exhibtion of temper, or 
bandy words with vindictive o[)|)onents, endeavoring 
to coerce him into submission to their views. He took 
the high-minded, dignified, and unanswerable course 
of officially rising to a question of privilege, and, when 
he had finished his short address, his first and last 
serious quarrel in office was ended. 



It is, however, impracticable to enter further into 
the details of this branch of his official career. Com- 
prehensively it may be said that his administration of 
the office of Mayor of San Francisco was an unqualified 
success, and that his fidelity to the people, his loyalty 
to truth and honor, and his manliness and self-control 
under severe pressure, attracted to him the attention 
and commanded the approbation of the best citizens 
of the State, both within and without his own party, 
and extended his reputation to distant sections of the 
Republic. In the middle of his second term he stood 
in very much the same relation to the solid elements 
of our population as that since occupied by Mayor 
Hewitt, of New York. He represented a policy and a 
course of official conduct, which, apart from all parti- 
san issues, were wholly and strongly American— vigor- 
ous and uncompromising as related to individual and 
municipal rights, conservative as respected property 



35 

and all the elements of material, moral, and intellect- 
ual advancement, resolute in the maintenance of law, 
order and economy, and equally antagonistic to the 
aggressions of unscrupulous wealth and to the exotic 
criminality which misrepresents honest poverty and 
productive industry, , 



It is not surprising that, supported by such a 
record, the name of Washington Bartlett became 
familiar to the people to a degree which, within 
the* Democratic party, placed him at the head of the 
list of gentlemen mentioned for the office of Governor 
in 1886. To some ambitious men their party is neces- 
sary, but other men — and of these, Mr. Bartlett was 
one — are necessary to their party. His transition 
from the chief place in a great commercial metropolis 
to candidacy for the highest post, in the State — for 
which a precedent existed in the case of Grover 
Cleveland — was not only natural, but inevitable. He 
was in sober fact nominated by the mass of Democrats 
who were represented by the State Democratic Con- 
vention long before that body itself was convened. 
For thirty years he had consistently advocated the 
exclusion of the Chinese from the American States 
and Territories; he was inflexibly opposed to the 
Heath Amendment to the Constitution, as it was 
termed, which was generally condemned by those 
interested in taxation, but which apparently antici- 
pated a recent decision of the Supreme Court of the 
United States; and upon these and other questions, 
upon which there were virtually no issues between 
parties, he was unassailable. In every emergency 
which had arisen on the Pacific Coast, he had stood 
for property, honestly accumulated, and against 
Anai'chy and Communism, while he had energetically 
vindicated oppressed labor in the chamber of the 



36 

Senate. He had co-operated with other I'linctiouaries 
in reducing municipal expenses in San Francisco by 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year, and, 
in this and in other ways, already adverted to, he had 
established his capacity for finance. He had pro- 
moted efficiency and exacted strict responsibility in 
public officers. Ho had confronted and defeated vari- 
ous forms of monopoly, and had been sustained by 
the joined hands of both labor and capital. He had re- 
frained from every unnecessary controversy, and 
still had avoided none that was essential to the 
public welfare. He had never broken a promise. 
He had found time to utilize the deep humanity of his 
nature in works of lasting beneficence. He had out- 
lined most progressive measures for the elevation of 
citizenship through industrial education. In short, 
he had been true to God and man, and, without break 
or lapse, had uniformly exerted his faculties and 
improved his opportunities to the uttermost for the 
full performance of the work which, under Provi- 
dence, had been assigned to him,— until, in his sixty- 
second year, distinctly visible to all eyeg but his own, 
his character was elevated like a marble shaft above 
the common level of mankind. 



On September 2d, 1886, the Democratic State Con- 
vention assembled at Odd Fellows' Hall, in San Fran- 
cisco, and there, in a building which he had helped 
to construct, and which was dedicated to the good of 
the human race, AVashington Bartlett the next day 
received the Gubernatorial nomination. There was 
no lack of candidates of undoubted capacity and 
respectability, but his name "led all the rest." He 
was proposed in a speech oF remarkable point and 
brilliancy, but the torrent of cheers witii which his 
name was received almost quenched the eloquence of 



37 

the orator. As already snggested, Ijis nomination was 
a foregone conclusion, and it attracted the clieerful 
support of his honorable competitors. 



On the stirring canvass of 1886, which lasted for 
two months, it would be indecorous to elaborate. The 
contest was close and to some extent bitter, and 
this is no suitable occasion to revive its acrimo- 
nious features. It is one of the distressing char- 
acteristics of party struggles that, both on the 
stump and in the press, they lead to personalities 
instead of the array of facts, to exaggeration or posi- 
tive falsehood instead of moderate and trnthful state- 
ment, and to coarse and truculent abuse instead of 
deliberate and weighty argument. This degradation 
of politics was conspicuously manifested in 1886, and 
tiie caricatures, the epithets, the denunciation and the 
misstatements of that year are not pleasant reading in 
1888 to men of sound minds and of decent lives. It 
must be admitted, however, without disparaging other 
gentlemen on both sides who were equally conscien- 
tious, that, throughout the tempest, Washington Bart- 
lett preserved his temper and his integrity both in 
form and in substance, and left no sting to rankle in 
the breasts of his opponents. He put forth all his 
strength and labored earnestly and disinterestedly for 
the success of the Avliole ticket he had been selected to 
lead, but his views and his opinions, whether intrin- 
sically right or intrinsically wrong, were expressed 
with vigor and directness, it is true, but with that 
degree of calmness and of fairness which left no excuse 
for resentment. His inherent conscientiousness forced 
him, moreover, amidst the distractions of a doubtful 
battle, to discharge the duties and the obligations of 
the position he then held, and the double labor thus 
imposed upon him was greater than his physical con- 



38 



stitution was able to bear. He Ijatl always been syste- 
matically iudastrious, but averse to excitement and to 
extraordinary drains upon his faculties, and his habits 
were so fixed that he once facetiously urged, as an 
objection to matrimony in his own case, the danger at 
his age of constant breaks in his daily routine. He 
had also fallen into the error of most busy men by 
failing to counterbalance mental strain by bodily 
exercise. It is of him painfully true that the wreath 
of victory which was awarded to him on November 2d, 
1886, bore the ominous symbols of immediate decay. 
He had undergone a mass of detailed work, which had 
almost crushed him beneath its weight. He had suf- 
fered from exposure, from changes of diet, from the 
jostle of travel, and from the unaccustomed exertion of 
addressing immense audiences in widely-separated 
parts of the State. At San Francisco, at San Kafael, 
at Napa, at Sacramento, at Los Angeles, at San Ber- 
nardino, and at other places, he had delivered, before 
large masses of the people, terse, strong, frank vindi- 
cations of his official life and expositions of the policy 
of his party and of his individual intentions. But the 
prolonged effort had been too much for him, and the 
certificate of his election was his death warrant. 

There are many passages in his speeches which were 
not partisan, and but for the length to which this 
memorial has been unavoidably stretched, your Com- 
mittee would be glad to bring them to the appreciative 
notice of the Society of California Pioneers. A single 
extract from his address of September 11th, 1886, 
must serve as an average specimen of the habit of his 
thought and the mode of his expression: 

" I believe in the rights of labor — in a fair price for 
an honest day's work. I know that legislation can do 
comparatively little directly in adjusting the relative 
rights and duties of capital and labor, but a just ad- 



39 

ministration of the law, economy and wisdom on the 
part of the executive officers, can do much towards pre- 
venting irritating contests and in creating employment 
for those willing to work. 

" You all remember the labor agitations of 1879, 
1880, and 1881 — how the street corners were crowded 
with idle men seeking employment— how all building 
and other enterprises were checked, and how capital 
fled the State. 

"The causes which brought about this condition of 
affairs were extravagance in private life and in the 
adnlinistratiou of public affairs. We had to call a 
halt and to inaugurate reforms and practice economy. 
With the return to plain living and honest ways came 
peace and prosperity. Capital took fresh courage and 
became ashamed of its own cowaidice. New enter- 
prises were maugurated, giving employment to num- 
bers of men and women, thousands of new buildings 
were erected, and the sounds of hammer and plane 
were heard on almost every street. 

"The labor agitation died a natural death. The 
mechanic, the laborer, and the artisan were too busy, 
too profitably occupied, for discontent and strikes." 



The interval between his election and his inaugura- 
tion supplied no opportunity to Mr. Bartlett to recu- 
perate his weak(>ned system, but, on the contrary, he 
urged himself with whip and spur, in essential prepar- 
ations for the assumption of the high office to which 
he had been elected, and in winding up his adminis- 
tration as Maj'or of San Francisco, so that his success- 
or, Mr. Pon<l, might take the position with a clean 
sheet. When he visited Sacramento with his brother, 
Columbus Bartlett, in advance of the meeting of the 
Legislature, to make arrangements for a residence 
there dnring his term, he attended an elaborate ban- 



40 

quet given in his honor, and it was observed then, that 
while he was gratified at his reception, and bore 
his usual conservative part in the festivities, he looked 
Aveak and careworn and ill-fitted for the protracted 
exactions of a legislative session. 

On January 2d, 1887, he introduced his successor 
to the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, and 
proved that his interest in the municipality iiad not 
ceased or even lessened, by delivering a valedictory 
address, which was carefully prepared and admirably 
worded and connected, and which embraced an ex- 
tended review of his own administration, a compre- 
hensive discussion of the principal questions affecting 
tlie municipal interests, and recommendations of rare 
wisdom and sagacity, and closed with a touching 
tribute of gratitude to the people who had stood by 
him during his entire official career. "To me," he 
said, " San Francisco is something more than my 
home.'' * * * "I have gloried in her triumphs, 
and been cast down by her defeats, and shared in all 
the vicissitudes, which have attended her wonderful 
growth. Her people are dear to me and her pros- 
perity lies near to my heart, and it will afford me 
the most sincere happiness to contribute my best 
efforts, in whatever position placed, to advance her 
interests and benefit her citizens." 

Four days later he was at Sacramento, prepared to 
take the oath of office and to define his policy as Gov- 
ernor of the State, but, owing to defects in some of 
the returns, the ceremony was deferred until Saturday, 
January 8tli, 1887, which was the anniversary not 
only of the battle of New Orleans, but of his first 
inauguration as Mayor of San Francisco. The scene 
at the State Capitol, when he was sworn in by Judge 
Armstiong, was brilliant and inspiring, and his 
inaugural, whiih had been partly re-written on 



41 

account of the delay, amply justified his reputation 
and completely filled the public expectation. It was 
a condensed, plain, statesmanlike paper, in which he 
dealt with the practical questions with which, in his new 
station, it was his duty to grapple. " I assume the 
oflBce," he stated, "invoking Divine assistance;" 
and then he proceeded in vigorous but balanced sen- 
tences, and with great candor and distinctness, to 
express his views of irrigation, of the Chinese, of 
harbor defenses, of the public finances and credit, of 
the militia, of the common schools, of corporations, of 
agricultural and mining industries; of all the important 
and pi;essing necessities of the State. He never de- 
viated from the legitimate themes of such an occasion, 
and volunteered no lectures or advice to the diploma- 
tists of Europe or to the statesmen of America, but 
then, as everywhere else, manifested his precise 
knowledge and his sound judgment, by confining him- 
self strictly within the appropriate limits. 

And now, having traced him to the Executive 
Chamber, we catch but occasional glimpses of his 
person and find his waning life mainly exemplified 
by his self-abnegation and by his persistent endurance 
of the labor which hastened the catastrophe that at- 
tested his martyrdom to principle and enshrined him 
in the affections of his constituents and in the historical 
annals of his country. He appeared at the Inaugural 
Ball, which took place in Sacramento, January 17th, 
1887, and maintained the dignity, to use the language 
of a graphic reporter, "of the faultless gentleman of 
the old school." He gave two or three receptions, 
when he was brought into personal contact with the 
leading men of the State. He was always accessible to 
Senators and Assemblymen, to committees, and to indi- 
viduals who visited him on public business. But nev- 
ertheless, with a full consciousness of the danger he was 



42 

incurring, he deliberately sacrificed himself to the 
exigencies of his station. In conversation at Highland 
Springs, in the following June, Avhen he was vainly 
seeking to recover the lost jewels of his health and 
strength, he disclosed his real feelings to an intimate 
friend in these noble words, which ought to be indel- 
ibly impressed upon the minds of the young men, who 
take a light or frivolous view of their obligations to 
society: "If I had known the work I had to do would 
kill me, I should have kept on just the same, for I 
could not shirk it. I think it has finished me." It 
had "finished" him. From the date of his induc- 
tion into the Gubernatorial oflice until the tenth day 
after the adjournment of the Legislature, buried in 
papers and surrounded by books, he coerced himself 
into the performance of an incalculable amount of labor. 
He gave his personal attention to every department 
and almost to every detail of the Executive business, 
not even ignoring the pardoning power, which, except 
in extreme cases, he was reluctant to exercise. He 
carefully sciutinized the condition of the public treas- 
ury. He read nearly all of the two hundred and 
twenty bills which passed both Houses and came to 
him for examination, and he not only read but 
studied them. Of these measures he approved 
a hundred and ten or thereabouts, including the 
Act for the permanent support of the State 
University, the Act for the organization and government 
of irrigation districts, the Act to provide for the com- 
pletion of the New City Hall at San Francisco, and 
various other important statutes, to be found in the 
volume published in 1887. He defeated much useless 
and pernicious legislation by the mere act of with- 
holding his signature, and he vetoed the bill known as 
the Cohen Stamp Act, "An Act to protect the manufac- 
turing interests of this State," because it was " too 
broad and too indefinite;" because it created public 



43 

offeDses, of which knowledge or intent was not an 
ingredient; because it would have "materially in- 
creased the cost of our struggling industries;" and 
because it was "a restraint upon the liberty of the 
citizen in the use of his property," and did not 
" purport to conserve the health or the safety of the 
people." He also vetoed an Act passed to establish a 
permanent fund for the purchase of jute, to be manu- 
factured at San Quentin, for the reasons, among 
others, which are conclusively argued in his message 
of March 8th, 1887, that the amount appropriated was 
" excessive and too indefinite," and that there was not 
" the usual or sufiicient supervision over the expendi- 
tures of a portion of the fund." He also saved to the 
State treasury five hundred thousand dollars, which, 
but for him, would have been squandered in the pay- 
ment of stale or fraudulent claims. 



But it is useless to multiply the evidences of Gov- 
ernor Bartlett's intense and unselfish consecration to 
duty. His career, from its beginning, is replete with 
illustrations of this fundamental trait in his character, 
and while your Committee are not conscious of having 
indulged in useless repetitions in this Memorial, they 
are perfectly aware that justice to the memory of the 
late Executive can only be secured through the hand 
of the biographer. They have simply endeavored to 
touch, cursorily and rapidly, the salient points in a 
record Avhich, for nearly thirty-eight years, was knit 
into the teeming history of the Pacific Coast, and, by 
suggestion, more than by amplification, to enable the 
people, and especially the Pioneers, to form some 
adequate conception of the true proportions of the 
man, of his actual relations to themselves, and of the 
reasons which justify, not merely the homage which 
has been already paid to his memory, but a more 



44 

enduring tribute in the hearts and in the minds of his 
countrymen through succeeding generations. 



The period between the adjournment of the Legisla- 
ture of 1887 and the consummation of the life-work of 
Washington Bartlett has been already bridged in this 
Memorial, and the work of your Committee is now vir- 
tually closed. His remains were fitly deposited in 
Mountain View Cemetery, which overlooks the city of 
Oakland, and which, for picturesque beauty, is prob- 
ably unexcelled in the world. There, amidst singing 
birds and exquisite flowers, fanned by soft airs which 
speak of peace and tenderness, they lie at rest, never 
more to be disturbed until humanity has achieved its 
destiny, and love, the immortal force of creation, 
receives its ultimate crown. 

One by one the members of this Society, whose pri- 
vileges were derived from individual participation in 
the task of laying tiie foundation and erecting the 
structure of this Commonwealth, are bravely and hon- 
orably vanishing from our gaze, and, Avhile our eyes 
are dimmed with tears, our hearts glow with pride and 
gratitude as we see their monument in the State. 
"The path of glory leads but to the grave," but the 
labors of men are never lost but pass into indelible 
records. Therefore we yield our brethren up with 
chastened sadness, not unmixed with joy, and illumina- 
ted by faith and hope. 

Here, in this temple, which marks the irresistible 
progress of our race, our language, and our institu- 
tions, year by year we see the Pioneers by birth suc- 
ceeded by the Pioneers by inheritance, and soon, very 
soon, the roll will be called, and, of all the original 
Pioneers, but one will answer " Here." May that lone 
survivor be cheered and comforted in his supreme 
hour by the reflection that, among all those who pre- 



45 

ceded him to the land of shadows, there were none who 
failed to revere the name and to exemplify the charac- 
ter of Washington Bartlett. 

Dated May 7th, 1888. 

HENRY E. HIGHTON, 
PHILIP A. ROACH, 
JOHN. S. HITTELL, 

Committee. 



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